President Fidel Castro led hundreds of thousands of Cubans in a march in Havana yesterday to protest at new steps by the US to squeeze Cuba's economy and topple its communist government.

Workers and students wearing red shirts, and soldiers and military cadets in uniform, marched and waved Cuban flags along Havana's waterfront past the US diplomatic mission, shouting slogans criticising President George Bush.

"Bush, you fascist, there is no aggression that Cuba cannot resist!" they chanted during the three-hour government-organised protest. Authorities said a million people had taken part.

Mr Castro denounced as "ruthless and cruel" measures adopted last week by the White House to step up support for Cuban dissidents and limit dollar remittances to Cubans and visits from their relatives in the US.

The 77-year-old leader, wearing his trademark military fatigues and cap, looked frail and walked one mile with difficulty, at times leaning on a fellow marcher.

The US measures, aimed at hastening democratic change on the Caribbean island, are the latest in long line of sanctions designed to oust Mr Castro, who came to power in a 1959 revolution.

"You have no right whatsoever, except for that of brute force, to intervene in Cuba's affairs ... and proclaim the transition from one system to another and take measures to make this happen," the president said in a speech that started the march.

He said Mr Bush had no moral authority to speak of democracy and human rights in Cuba when his own election was a "fraud" and US troops were killing civilians in Iraq.

"The unbelievable torture applied to prisoners in Iraq has rendered the world speechless," Mr Castro said.

Marchers carried placards with pictures of naked Iraqi prisoners taken by American soldiers, with a slogan saying: "This will never happen in Cuba." Another showed Mr Bush in a Nazi uniform, sporting a Hitler moustache. A slogan said: "Down with genocide and fascism."

Mr Castro's younger brother and designated political successor, Raúl, marched in uniform at the head of Cuban army generals and officers. The government declared a holiday and brought people into Havana from the countryside for the march.

In a move criticised as pandering to Cuban voters in Florida, Mr Bush decided to limit visits by Cuban Americans to relatives in Cuba to one every three years and restrict their cash remittances to immediate family members. He also prohibited sending money to government officials and members of the Communist party, to deprive what he called a "tyranny" of financial resources.

Financial analysts say the new sanctions will barely dent the annual flow of an estimated $800m (£455m) to Cuba - a vital cash injection to its battered socialist economy.

Cuban authorities, however, suspended sales of all but food and toiletries in dollar shops on Monday, warning of price increases and tough times ahead, as they seized on the issue to bash Mr Bush's policies and rally support.

"You are attacking Cuba for petty, political reasons, trying to obtain electoral support from a shrinking group of renegades," Mr Castro said, in reference to Cuban exiles in Miami.Reuters